


What Might Have Been

by LymneirianApparition



Series: Aradia's Route [2]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Flirting, Morning After, Pregnancy Scares, accidental creampie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 18:51:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18058079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LymneirianApparition/pseuds/LymneirianApparition
Summary: Aradia regrets turning down Portia and reminisces on the day when they first learned of each other's bisexuality.





	What Might Have Been

**Author's Note:**

> A lighter, softer, and shorter transition piece to offset the story's very hardcore opening scene.

As Aradia sat on her bed, she crossed one long leg over the other and stared idly at the deck of tarot cards in her hand. She had half-heartedly pulled the pack out to find out one way or another where her night would lead, but then thought better of it. The hours were ticking by, and she had nearly yielded to the temptation to ask if her man was really coming to see her. But that would have been a waste of the Arcana’s power, and she wasn’t that kind of woman. 

But then, what kind of woman was she? The kind who got involved with not just any fugitive, but the most wanted man in all of Vesuvia? The very man she had sworn to the Countess she would bring to justice? She wondered, not for the first time, if it had been his Nevivonian heritage that had called to her. Having inherited her blue hair from her Prakran father and her pale skin from her Nevivonian mother, Aradia felt like a woman who belonged nowhere much of the time. Meeting someone from a place she had at least called home once had preyed upon that weakness. But now, here she was: alone in her darkened bedroom, waiting for him. She could do better. Indeed, if it was simply a Nevivonian that she wanted, then she should have been with Porita. 

Portia… Aradia cursed herself for leaving the beautiful servant’s cottage earlier that night; for saying that they should just be friends. Had she stayed she most certainly would have wound up in Portia’s bed, feeling valued and wanted. Maybe she would have even convinced Portia to try a few drops of the love potion with her to really see what the evening could turn into. How fun would that have been? 

But Aradia had chosen the safe route. Her relationships were complicated enough as it was: the Doctor on one side, the Countess on the other. It was good to just have a friend: someone you could depend on without romantic complications. Aradia needed that, and with Asra gone, Portia was all she had. She had made the right decision. 

Right decisions were not easy, however. Not when sexual tension defined your entire friendship. She still remembered the day Portia had come to her at the shop. It had been perhaps three days after their first encounter at the market. Aradia had just stopped by for a few hours to make sure the shop was still secure and maybe to make a little money on the side before returning to the palace to aid the Countess. She had barely been open for two minutes before Portia had ducked inside, wearing a colorful dress in a scandalous Nevivonian cut and looking decidedly harried. 

“Oh Aradia, I’m glad you’re here! I, uh, really need your help.” 

Aradia had stepped around the counter and taken her new friend’s hands. “Portia, what’s happening? What’s wrong? Is something wrong at the palace?” 

The pale redhead had blushed and averted her eyes. “Oh, no. It’s nothing like that. I haven’t even been back to the palace. I, uh, spent the night… out.” 

Aradia had blinked at her. “Out?” 

Portia’s blush deepened. “Fine, I’ll come clean. I met a guy at an inn in South End and we wound up going upstairs to his room for a bit of fun. I had sex with him and now I need something to, well, you know…” 

She had shrugged and it had made Aradia smile. “You need something to make sure you don’t get pregnant.” 

“Right. Exactly.” 

Aradia was already moving behind the counter selecting ingredients to add to her mortar. “Relax. It’s okay. Women come in here for that all the time. Master always has me help them. I think feminine issues make him uncomfortable.” 

Portia ran her hand through her wild ginger hair, still looking abashed. “I’m not quite comfortable with it either. I’m usually so much more careful than this.” 

Aradia smiled up at her from her work. “From what I’ve seen it’s typically the men who aren’t careful.” 

Portia began twirling a stray lock around her finger. “I can’t say it was his fault. I was riding him, and he warned me he was about to cum, but I just kept going. And I may have started telling him to cum inside me. And well, this is where it gets me.” 

It was then that the redhead had noticed the way Aradia’s violet eyes regarded her story with keen interest and she had to look shyly away. “I’m sorry. You probably didn’t want all those images in your mind, did you?” 

But Aradia had enjoyed this abrupt and explicit look into Portia’s private world. “You can always share those kinds of details with me, Portia. We’re friends after all.” 

“I’m glad you feel that way, Aradia,” Portia beamed. “I feel that way too. It just sure would be easier if there were a way to have sex with absolutely no risk at all of getting pregnant!” 

Aradia spoke before she could think better of it. “There is. It’s called having sex with other women.” 

Portia laughed. “Well yeah, obviously! Too bad I don’t think I even know any women who are into having sex with other women.” 

Aradia had stopped grinding the herbs and looked Portia dead in her beautiful blue eyes. “Actually yeah, you do.” 

Portia’s stunned and flattered expression had pleased Aradia. She had figured out even then that rendering the chatty little servant at a loss for words was not easy. Instant chemistry and electricity had ignited between them in that moment, and where it might have gone was anyone’s guess. Too bad it was at that moment that the shop’s front door had opened and in came an elderly couple insistently seeking a cure for the husband’s foot fungus. Talk about a mood killer! Aradia had to content herself by showing her interest and affection in the form of a generous discount on the contraceptive mixture and Portia, smiling with flattery and gratitude had taken it and left. 

So much had changed in just a few days. With the Countess’s overtures of affection it had become apparent that Portia knew more women who liked women than she thought. And the Doctor had become insistent. So much more insistent. But also unreliable. Aradia put her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling in the darkness. She could have been with Portia right now. 

She had sat there without moving, the tarot deck beside her. But the deck shifted as though she had stirred. The top card slid off and flipped over, revealing the distressed visage of the Hanged Man. A shadow moved across the window. She was no longer alone.


End file.
